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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789115">The Secrets We Keep</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightLegacy13/pseuds/TwilightLegacy13'>TwilightLegacy13</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Witchlands Series - Susan Dennard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Friendship, Gen, I just love the Hell-Bards okay, One Shot, Pre-Canon, because that's what he does, feat. Caden flirting with some random guy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:17:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightLegacy13/pseuds/TwilightLegacy13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>About three years prior to Truthwitch, the Hell-Bards are on a mission that takes them to Ontigua and the great library found there.  The only problem is the secret that Lev has been keeping:  she doesn't know how to read.  A one-shot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Secrets We Keep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I literally came up with the idea for this yesterday, and posted it on Tumblr this morning, and now the one-shot is done.  It was that quick.  Hope you all like it  :)</p><p>Content warnings:  Mild language, brief mention of past injury by fire.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Welcome to Ontigua.”</p><p>The sudden words after a long silence momentarily startled her, even though Lev knew full well that they must have arrived as she surveyed the city sprawling before them.  They were only at the outskirts and she could already tell that it was a nicer city than Praga, though that was an admittedly easy title to claim.  Or maybe she still harbored bitterness against her home, which made her remember it less fondly.  That was entirely possible.</p><p>She looked up at Zander.  “Thanks?  Didn’t know I was a tourist.”</p><p>“No, no.”  He laughed.  “I was reading the sign.  See?”</p><p>Lev glanced in the direction he was pointing, where she <em>did</em> in fact see the sign covered in writing that presumably welcomed them to the city, but the words themselves might as well have been written in Kritian for how little she understood them.  “Yeah,” she said, nodding.  “Well, I guess there’s worse places to be than…what was it?”</p><p>Caden chuckled.  “One of the few places in this pathetic empire that might be worth conquering,” he replied, mimicking the description of Ontigua that Emperor Henrick had given them back at the capital of Cartorra.</p><p>“Ah.”  Squinting against the sun, she scanned the surprisingly orderly streets and high buildings.  Crowds of people pushed past each other with an air that implied they were perpetually busy, though few seemed to be genuinely upset or frightened.  Shops and businesses were arrayed close enough together to form a tightly knit environment, but not so close that they appeared to be built practically on top of one another.  She imagined that it wasn’t perfect—nothing was—but it was indisputably better than the Angelstatt.  “Definitely not pathetic,” she added as an afterthought.</p><p>Caden hummed in agreement.  “They should add it to the sign:  Welcome to Ontigua, a city worth conquering.”</p><p>“Not sure that’d be too helpful, but it’d be a funny story to tell,” Lev conceded.  “Now that we’re here, we should probably find a place to stay before it gets too dark to get around.”  She was stating the obvious, of course, as it was the first thing they did any time they arrived in a new city with the intent to remain there for longer than a day—but she wanted to stop talking about the thrice-damned writing on the thrice-damned sign.</p><p>It would be different if her friends knew that she couldn’t read, but it wasn’t like there were many ways to fit it into a conversation.  <em>We’re heading west from here, right?  Oh, and in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m illiterate.</em>  The lack of opportunities to say something had led to more than a few awkward situations, like the time Caden had handed her and Zander a paper to read and she’d had to let her eyes scan the meaningless page until Zander laughed and she echoed it, now aware that she was supposed to find it funny.  Or the time she was told to write down her full name, address, and witchery for the Hell-Bard records and she had held the pen in her hand for almost an entire minute before blurting out that no one had used her family name in so long that she didn’t remember it, and the officer in front of her had gone to research the families who lived in the Angelstatt.  By the time he’d returned, he had gotten frustrated by the amount of time they were taking and had filled out the records for her.</p><p>Literacy wasn’t a required skill for Hell-Bards to have, but it was a rutting useful one when the world had so many things that needed reading.  The lack of it was also extraordinarily difficult to hide, and Lev would never have been able to keep it a secret for so long if she hadn’t memorized so many locations on maps.  She wasn’t able to make sense of the phrases, but at least she could point to them.</p><p>She wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t told Caden and Zander yet, or why it mattered in the first place.  Then again, it was such a basic talent, and Lev had made a name for herself as the reckless Hell-Bard who was the type of person to demand an apology from her chains and would gladly take on the whole world to get it.  How could she live up to that, <em>be</em> that if she couldn’t do the simplest of things?</p><p>No person could make Lev think poorly of herself—in fact, she’d like to see the damned fool who thought they could try—but ever since she was forced into the Hell-Bard brigade, there were moments where the things she couldn’t do seemed to outnumber the things she could.  She couldn’t go where and do what she pleased, she couldn’t touch fire without being burned (and hell-pits, flames were <em>painful </em>now), and she couldn’t comprehend letters on a page or sign.  It was distinctly unlike her to have so many weaknesses.</p><p>“Look!” Zander said excitedly, jostling her arm when they were about halfway down the main street into the city.</p><p>“Yeah, Zan?”</p><p>It was Caden who answered, gesturing towards the other side of the street from where they had stopped.  “They do say that Ontigua is the academic capital of the Witchlands,” he noted.  “But I’ve never actually seen the great library before.”</p><p>Lev pivoted to see what they were looking at, fully prepared to pretend she could tell just by looking that it was, in fact, a library.  As it turned out, the statue of someone who looked like a scholar holding a book was enough of a hint, though the library was <em>enormous.  </em>It could easily have fit the whole alley in which she grew up inside, but in her opinion, the carvings on the marble pillars were really too much.</p><p>“Let’s take a look inside,” Caden suggested.  “We’ve got a little time to spend before we should find an inn for the night.”</p><p>Zander murmured his agreement, and Caden led the way across the street and to the entrance of the library.  As soon as they stepped inside, it was as though they had entered into a different world, one where the bustling streets gave way to dead quiet and the rapid motion of passersby gave way to seemingly endless rows of bookshelves so tall that only Zander would be able to reach the top.</p><p>And that was just the first floor, the first chamber she had seen.  A spiral staircase wound around the center of the room, leading to another story that she presumed was at least comparable to this one in grandeur.</p><p>So many books.  So many words.</p><p>“Are you looking for something?” asked a young man from beside one of the bookshelves, setting down a thick stack of papers to divert his full attention to the newcomers.  “We have a new collection of centuries-old Svodish documents upstairs.”</p><p>“Really?”  Caden took a few steps forward, and Lev and Zander trailed after him.  “That’s fascinating.  How did you get them?”</p><p>Hell-pits.  Did he seriously care about old Svodish records?</p><p>The young man’s eyes lit up.  Clearly <em>he</em> did.  “Two historians recently recovered them from a fortress near a battlefield in Svoden, and many of them are firsthand accounts of the war and the treaty with Cartorra.  I have also been making translations, if you don’t speak the language.  I can show you?”</p><p>“Please,” Caden said with a charming smile, and Lev only barely managed to keep herself from groaning aloud.  On the one hand, this explained his sudden and ridiculous interest in Svodish history.  On the other hand, he had to be kidding.</p><p>She glanced over at Zander, who rolled his eyes before following them upstairs.</p><p>The bookcases seemed even higher on the second floor, the books even older and more important.  Though she’d never say so, it made her head spin.  There was so much knowledge here, and all of it meant less than nothing to her.</p><p>Caden and the librarian were both sitting down at a studying table, reading some of the documents and discussing them in respectful murmurs, but Lev wasn’t really listening to them.  She wandered amidst the aisles, only occasionally glancing back to make sure her friends hadn’t gone elsewhere.</p><p>A dark red volume caught her eye, a thin layer of dust coating its spine and covering up the title.  She brushed it off with her fingers and took the book off its shelf, skimming through the rough pages.  Ink swam in front of her eyes in strange lines and curves.  She recognized the shapes, but she didn’t understand them, and that was all they were to her.  Not even words.  Just frustrating, meaningless ink on a page.</p><p>She’d quite had enough of this.</p><p>“You’re leaving so soon?”  The librarian’s voice carried across the room, and Lev looked up from the book to see the others drawing closer to her.</p><p>“Unfortunately,” Caden said.  “It’s getting late, and my friends and I need to find a place to stay.”</p><p>The young man nodded, though not without visible disappointment.  “You should visit again.  We have ancient maps of Lusque that might interest you.”</p><p>“I’m certain they will,” he promised, smiling warmly again.  “And your translations were very good—I would love to read the rest once you finish them.”</p><p>“Then you <em>will</em> be back?”  Gods, Lev didn’t need to hear this.</p><p>Caden’s smile widened as he leaned forward a bit too close for a normal conversation.  “Oh, I’ll be back.”</p><p>The librarian flushed.  “Well, I need to restock the back shelves.  I’ll…let you see yourselves to the door?”</p><p>“Thank you,” Caden said, with a sickening amount of affection directed towards somebody he would probably never see again.</p><p>The librarian disappeared behind the long rows of bookshelves, but none of them made any movement to leave just yet.  Zander nodded towards Lev and the volume she still held.  “Interesting book?”</p><p><em>Gods thrice-damn it.  I’m not going to keep this a secret anymore.  </em>It <em>was </em>a weakness of hers, but the identical gold chains at their necks was proof of the fact that weakness didn’t matter between the three of them.</p><p>Lev glanced from Zander to Caden and back again.  “I don’t know,” she admitted, drumming her fingers against the cover of the book.  “I’m gonna need you to teach me how to read.”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>No spoken words filled the air.  There were written ones, she assumed, but the library had those in spades.</p><p>“What?” Caden asked finally.</p><p>“I’m gonna need you to teach me,” Lev repeated.  She bit her lip absently, then immediately stopped herself from continuing—it was the remnants of a habit from before she was scarred.  “To read.”</p><p>There was another pause, though this one was shorter.  “You can’t read?” Zander asked—and from nearly anyone else, they would regret the tone with which they’d said the words, but she knew that Zan didn’t mean it as an accusation or insult.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“And all those times…?” Caden trailed off, clearly implying the many instances where she’d faked it.  Like the sign.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>He blinked, then gave her a smile that wasn’t half as frustrating as the ones from before.  “You could’ve said something!  Let’s get to an inn—we’ll find paper and something to write with.”</p><p>“We’re in a library,” Zander pointed out.  “I’m sure they have plenty.  We can ask for the paper, and books—to take with us?”  He directed this question specifically at Lev, and it was clear that he knew she wouldn’t want to do this in a public place where anyone could eavesdrop on a twenty-year-old being taught how to read.</p><p>“Perfect,” Lev said, grinning widely.  She gripped the red book a little tighter.  She still had no idea what it said, but maybe one day she could read it and add one item to the list of things the reckless Hell-Bard <em>could </em>do.  “And…thanks.”</p><p>Zander put his arm around her while Caden leaned against her shoulder.  “You don’t even need to say it.”</p><p>They stayed like that for a moment, until there was too much emotion in the dusty air and Lev needed to do something about it.  “Well, good thing one of us has got someone in this library who’d do anything for them.”</p><p>“Shut up,” Caden muttered, shoving her away with an embarrassed smile.</p><p>Maybe letting go of secrets didn’t change things.  Maybe it just made them easier.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Seriously, I love this trio.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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